Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases 174 Shares of Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,054 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 174 shares during the quarter. Microsoft accounts for approximately 0.3% of Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Peterson Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $1,745,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MSFT. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its holdings in shares of Microsoft by 27.0% during the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 1,016 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Boston Common Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Microsoft by 9.1% in the second quarter. Boston Common Asset Management LLC now owns 108,678 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $48,574,000 after buying an additional 9,050 shares during the period. Bank & Trust Co purchased a new position in Microsoft during the second quarter valued at approximately $7,789,000. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Microsoft by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Chickasaw Capital Management LLC now owns 27,796 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $12,423,000 after buying an additional 832 shares during the period. Finally, Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Microsoft by 0.4% during the second quarter. Cascade Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 10,621 shares of the software giant’s stock worth $4,747,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Microsoft

In other Microsoft news, EVP Christopher David Young sold 7,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $423.66, for a total value of $3,050,352.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 103,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,792,039.56. This trade represents a 6.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CMO Takeshi Numoto sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $414.72, for a total transaction of $414,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 57,511 shares in the company, valued at $23,850,961.92. This represents a 1.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 41,200 shares of company stock worth $17,383,892 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MSFT. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup cut their price objective on Microsoft from $500.00 to $497.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Microsoft from $470.00 to $465.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Microsoft from $500.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Microsoft from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $509.90.

Microsoft Price Performance

Shares of MSFT stock opened at $439.33 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a market cap of $3.27 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.25, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.90. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $427.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $428.69. Microsoft Co. has a 12 month low of $366.50 and a 12 month high of $468.35.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The software giant reported $3.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $65.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.57 billion. Microsoft had a net margin of 35.61% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The business’s revenue was up 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.99 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Microsoft Co. will post 12.93 EPS for the current year.

Microsoft declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, September 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $60.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software giant to purchase up to 1.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a $0.83 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 27.39%.

Microsoft Profile

Microsoft Corporation develops and supports software, services, devices and solutions worldwide. The Productivity and Business Processes segment offers office, exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, office 365 Security and Compliance, Microsoft viva, and Microsoft 365 copilot; and office consumer services, such as Microsoft 365 consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other office services.